Painting Edo: Early Modern Masterworks from the Feinberg Collection

Japan’s Edo period (1615–1868) was an immensely innovative time, during which painters belonging to lineages old and new produced a wide spectrum of visually alluring works. Their paintings both reflected and constructed the pivotal early modern era, and the vibrant city for which it was named. The Harvard Art Museums has a long history of focusing on Japanese art, going back to the 1920s. This vision continues with the extraordinary promised gift of the collection of Robert and Betsy Feinberg, currently on display in the largest special exhibition ever mounted at the museums (February 14–July 26, 2020). In this talk, Dr. Rachel Saunders, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Curator of Asian Art at the Harvard Art Museums, takes an in depth look at some of the remarkable highlights of this exhibition of paintings from the Edo period.